Junction-box for custom trike

Continuing the custom tadpole recumbent trike project, here are recent posts:

• Lensun MPPT has to be isolated from frame — October 11, 2024
• Custom trike luggage rack completed — October 04, 2024

I have now constructed a "junction box", with circuit breakers and various input and output plugs and sockets. Here is a simplified sketch:

...the negative wires are not shown; they are all connected together, in a star configuration. Photo of inside of the box, mostly assembled:

Another view:

It is a snug fit. Could have used a bigger aluminium box; however, wanted one with side-flanges, for convenient mounting, and Jaycar, a local store near me, had limited range. I bought this one.

The box is going to be mounted underneath the seat, where I can reach down and flip the "motor" circuit-breaker to get going. There is also a "mppt" circuit-breaker that goes to the solar-panel MPPT controller, and an "output" circuit-breaker that connects the battery to output sockets -- Anderson socket to bring out the 48V battery, USB sockets and 12V accessory (cigarette lighter) socket.

The USB and Anderson socket combo also came from Jaycar, here. However, what I did not realise, is that the USB panel-mount socket is also available with higher input voltage. The ones from Jaycar and everywhere else locally, are 12 or 24V input. But I discovered in Aliexpress, they are also available for electric-vehicles, input voltage up to 90V. So, I bought this one:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001756428902.html

The back of the aluminium box has a DC-DC converter mounted, input from the "48V" battery, output 12V going to the accessory socket. Photo of back:

If I had stayed with the Jaycar USB socket, with only 12V input, would have had to go through two DC-DC converters, which is very inefficient. Each DC-DC (buck) converter is about 90% efficient. The lost power is dissipated as heat. Now, the USB socket is connected directly from the 48V battery (through the circuit-breaker). There is also a on-off switch on the USB socket.

Bought the DC-DC 12V-output converter from here:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005631226496.html

Photo of the front panel:

After taking that photo, I went to the "men's shed" workshop near me, and used an etching tool to write what each circuit-breaker is for.

A note about those external cables; they will have XT60 plugs, bought from here. Photo:

...these are popular with remote-control (RC) enthusiasts, as well as other situations requiring small size, light weight and high current rating. I originally bought a pack of T-plug type, from here.

...however, found those T-plugs to be extremely difficult to plug together. Also difficult to unplug. Also, read online that the type of plastic used can soften when soldering, compromising the performance of the plug. There are some online comments that most RC enthusiasts have moved to XT60 type. Unless, I suppose if you need extreme small size.

Regarding the circuit-breakers; they are rated for DC usage. Got them from here. Got the "10A" ones, which might not be high enough for the motor. It is only a 250W motor and pedal-assist, so I reasoned the startup surge current will be modest, well below 10A.  We shall see.   

Tags: light

EasyOS Daedalus-series version 6.3.90 (6.4RC)

Devuan is a Linux distribution forked from Debian, almost identical except does not use systemd. Debian Bookworm is the current stable release, and Devuan calls it "Daedalus". I posted about building EasyOS with Daedalus packages a couple of days ago:

• Playing with Easy Daedalus — October 14, 2024

A bit worried about fracturing my development effort, but decided to go with it. There are now three projects; Easy Scarthgap-series, Quirky Void (QV) and Easy Daedalus-series.

EasyOS version numbering is based on the Easy infrastructure, not what packages are used to build the distribution, so version numbers keep going up, yet changing the packages could result, will result, in new issues.

Download the drive-image file, courtesy of ibiblio:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/daedalus/2024/6.3.90/

Thanks to the Netherlands Linux/Unix User Group for mirroring:

https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/easyos/amd64/releases/daedalus/2024/6.3.90/

And AARNET in Australia (but 6.3.90 not yet there):

https://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/easyos/amd64/releases/

If you are new to EasyOS and need help how to write a drive-image file to a USB Flash drive, read this:

https://easyos.org/install/how-to-write-easyos-to-a-flash-drive.html

Or, you could open up the image file and install direct to the internal drive. See install tutorials here:

https://easyos.org/

...it is very simple if you already have a boot-manager such as GRUB or REFind installed; just need to copy three files to a folder in any ext4 partition, then make an entry in the boot-manager.

Oh yes, the obligatory photo:

After limited testing, looks good, but testers are welcome -- I'm sure you will find issues! Feedback welcome at the forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=133213#p133213

Some usage notes from my limited testing:

I tested samba and it worked, but I left out the 'samba-vfs-module', that I had included in earlier Bookworm testing. I don't know what that package does. Without it, was able to open a folder on another computer over the local network.

The discussion thread on Easy Daedalus started before this release, and I posted about a problem with KDE Dolphin file manager:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=133193#p133193

...note though, Dolphin works fine OOTB in QV. But then, QV is built from the ground-up using the XBPS package manager.

Devuan uses Debian packages, except where they have had to modify the package not to require systemd. The Devuan package server is deb.devuan.org and in most cases it forwards a package request to one of the Debian mirrors. However, at certain times the forwarding fails -- it seems deb.devuan.org becomes overloaded. PKGget will seem to have frozen; in that case, click the "Abort" button and there will be another window offering to retry. It has always worked on the retry. Anyway, most of the time downloading is OK.

Any more issues, let me know!

Will Daedalus-series be a long-term "stayer"? Don't know, depends on user interest and also my level of interest and available time.    

Tags: easy

Playing with Easy Daedalus

There are those who loved Easy Buster, EasyOS built with Debian Buster packages. This had access to the enormous Debian repository, which was the main attraction.

Awhile ago, I experimented with Easy Bookworm; however, could not get LibreOffice to start. There were no error messages, just nothing, not aven the splash logo. It was waiting for something, and back then I tried to trace it; found where it was not returning from a function, but couldn't understand what it was waiting for. Online searching did not help.

Devuan Daedalus is the equivalent of Bookworm, except without systemd. Decided to give it another go, except this time build with Daedalus packages.

Note, I did download DevuanPup, created by josejp2424, see forum. Wrote the .iso to a usb stick, booted it and got a black screen.

EasyOS Daedalus-series looks good:

Brief testing, everything is working ...except LibreOffice. Same problem, hangs at startup.

Did a lot more online reading last night, and came up with a reference to apparmor causing startup hanging. Easy Daedalus has the apparmor package installed, to meet some dependency requirements, but the daemon isn't running. Played around a bit with that, then decided to compile LibreOffice, in a running Easy Daedalus.

...and, LibreOffice works.

Too big though, as I built with minimal use of system libraries. Today will have a go at compiling again, and reduce the size.

I did post yesterday about incorporating the Debian repositories into Easy Scarthgap-series; will probably continue to investigate that. However, Easy Daedalus is looking good, so tempted to release it. Will do some more testing first though.    

Tags: easy

APT and DPKG now in EasyOS

DPKG is a low-level DEB (.deb) package manager, whereas APT is a high-level manager, that knows about repositories and has automatic dependency resolution. Quoting from here:

APT is at the higher level, taking responsibility for dependency resolution, repository management, and other daily package management related tasks, whereas DPKG is more at the low-level, going ahead to install .deb packages, yet it has finer control but manual handling of dependencies.

DPKG was already compiled in OpenEmbedded, but I only included the 'dpkg-get' utility in EasyOS. Next release of EasyOS will have the full DPKG, and I have compiled APT in OpenEmbedded and that will also be in EasyOS. Also the 'xxhash' dependency.

Why? Well, I'm going to explore a new way to add more packages to EasyOS. The guys on the forum have been installing .deb packages successfully in Easy, so I would like to formalize that a bit, see if can handle dependencies, avoid clashes with the scarthgap packages.

I'm going to explore this new direction, after yesterday struggling with XBPS:

• Finding XBPS to be very frustrating — October 11, 2024

...those problems are a symptom of a combination of per-package updating and rolling-release model. Easy and the pups have SFS file updates, which are "atomic" and avoid the per-package update pitfalls -- which a rolling-release model makes much worse.

...that's my little rant. Moving on, will post about exploring this new direction.   

Tags: easy

Finding XBPS to be very frustrating

The XBPS package manager in Void Linux, and used in QV, is great, except when the database becomes broken. Then, fixing can be inpossible, or so it seems.

I'm running QV with a deliberately broken package database. This can happen to someone running Void and they haven't updated or synced for a long time. Try and do anything, maybe install a package with 'xbps-install', and get messages with "broken, unresolvable shlib".

The official advice is to run "xbps-install -Su", which is to sync to latest database and update everything ... except, that doesn't work, gives lots of "broken, unresolvable shlib".

Here is an example:

# xbps-install --repository=https://repo-fi.voidlinux.org/current --force --verbose libndp
Found NetworkManager-1.48.10_1 in repository https://repo-fi.voidlinux.org/current
Found libndp-1.8_1 in repository https://repo-fi.voidlinux.org/current
Found openresolv-3.13.2_1 in repository https://repo-fi.voidlinux.org/current
Found wpa_supplicant-2.10_5 in repository https://repo-fi.voidlinux.org/current
Found libmm-glib-1.18.12_1 in repository https://repo-fi.voidlinux.org/current
Found libnm-1.48.10_1 in repository https://repo-fi.voidlinux.org/current
Found newt-0.52.21_7 in repository https://repo-fi.voidlinux.org/current
Found libcurl-8.10.1_1 in repository https://repo-fi.voidlinux.org/current
newt-0.52.21_7: broken, unresolvable shlib `libpopt.so.0'
NetworkManager-1.48.10_1: broken, unresolvable shlib `libpsl.so.5'
libcurl-8.10.1_1: broken, unresolvable shlib `libpsl.so.5'
newt-0.52.21_7: broken, unresolvable shlib `libslang.so.2'
Transaction aborted due to unresolved shlibs.

So, perhaps we can work down recursively and update all the packages. Yes, except 'xbps-install' is too dumb, cannot do that. It is possible, see this:

# xbps-install --repository=https://repo-fi.voidlinux.org/current --force sox
sox-14.4.2_8: broken, unresolvable shlib `libao.so.4'
Transaction aborted due to unresolved shlibs.
# xbps-install --repository=https://repo-fi.voidlinux.org/current --force libao
libcurl-8.10.1_1: broken, unresolvable shlib `libpsl.so.5'
Transaction aborted due to unresolved shlibs.

We have traced down, it looks like maybe can install libpsl...

# xbps-install --repository=https://repo-fi.voidlinux.org/current --force libpsl

Name          Action    Version           New version            Download size
public-suffix install   -                 2024.08.25_1           130KB 
libpsl        downgrade 0.21.5_2          0.21.5_1               72KB 

Size to download:              203KB
Size required on disk:         485KB
Space available on disk:        43GB

Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 

OK, now go back up, try libao...

# xbps-install --repository=https://repo-fi.voidlinux.org/current --force --ignore-file-conflicts libao

Name         Action    Version           New version            Download size
libid3tag    update    0.15.1_2          0.15.1b_8              28KB 
libmad       update    0.15.1_2          0.15.1b_10             53KB 
libwavpack   install   -                 5.7.0_1                89KB 
opusfile     install   -                 0.12_3                 44KB 
sox          update    14.4.2_2          14.4.2_8               385KB 
libcurl      install   -                 8.10.1_1               368KB 
vorbis-tools update    1.4.2_2           1.4.2_3                206KB 
libao        update    1.2.0_2           1.2.2_2                29KB 

Size to download:             1206KB
Size required on disk:        3076KB
Space available on disk:        43GB

Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 

...yay!

I just happened to find these two able to install, but there is no tool to do it, to fix an entire installation. 'xbps-install' is too dumb, or too smart for its own good.    

Tags: quirky

Lensun MPPT has to be isolated from frame

Maybe. I posted last month about deciding which MPPT controller to install on my trike:

• MPPT controller for custom trike — September 13, 2024

...chose the Lensun. I very much doubt the Lensun company claim that it is both a buck and boost controller, as it says nothing in the documentation supplied with the controller, other than it is a boost controller. The Lensun website shows a photo with the front panel in English; however, the one that they sent me has Chinese characters on the front panel and Chinese User Manual. Here is the manual:

Page two:

I figured out basic usage. In the above table, you can see the value "58.4" -- that is for a nominal 48V LFP battery with 16 cells. That is what the charging voltage has to be set to. I already knew that, and figured out that the "+" and "-" buttons have to be held down together to put it into output-voltage-setting mode, then the "+" and "-" buttons can be used to set the voltage.

As can be seen in the earlier blog post, installed it on the trike, bolted underneath the solar-panel frame.

All seemed good, until a few days ago I was able to translate the manual to English. EasyOS has gImageReader, installable via PKGget (only recently added to the repository, see blog post). This is an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) app, which produces output as Chinese text. I then fed that to translate.google.com and got English.

It is all OK, except for this paragraph:

5. When installing this controller, it is best not to install the controller directly on the metal bracket.

...very interesting statement! My guess is that the power switching transistors are bolted to the controller heatsink frame with electrical-insulation. In ye olden days, this might have been a thin sheet of mica. It might be that they are not guaranteeing this isolation, hence covering themselves with the above statement.

Or, maybe they have only made that statement to reduce vibration.

Anyway, I decided to remount the controller isolated, on a small piece of plywood. Used plywood intended for internal use, so painted it for some external protection. Only two spray cans to choose from; black or red enamel. Choose red. Intended for metal, but reckon OK on the plywood. Put on three coats. Here it is mounted:

...quite easy to remove, convenient for testing the other controllers.

Ah yes, removal. First time bolted on, I used Loctite (medium strength) and locknuts. Only m4 bolts, but just about impossible to undo. Have used this combination all over the place on the trike, but as I discovered, the combination of Loctite and locknut is just too much. Got them undone, but was amazed that the bolts didn't sheer.

Those bolts are good quality. I bought plastic flip-top boxes of assorted lengths of bolts/nuts/washers and allen-key from Aliexpress, very handy. Bought m4, m5, m6, m8 boxes. They are 304 stainless steel -- that is not "marine grade".

The complete English translation is here: page 1, page 2

In the previous blog post, I mentioned a MPPT controller on Aliexpress that looks like the Lensun, but a fraction of the price. Yeah, I couldn't resist. Bought it ....and it looks identical to the Lensun. Don't know about internally. Do plan to test my collection of MPPT controllers on the trike sometime in the future.   

Tags: light

mtPaint now supports webp images

WEBP image files, with ".webp" extension, are not very well supported in EasyOS. Discussed in the forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=12789

I have compiled mtPaint version 3.50.10 in OpenEmbedded, with .webp support. Note that the latest mtpaint is not 3.51 as is suggested in the forum thread, it is 3.50.10. Yes, the README file here says "3.51", but the latest release identifies itself as "3.50.10":

https://github.com/wjaguar/mtPaint

Also modified /usr/bin/build-rox-sendto so that now click on a .webp file will open it in mtPaint, as well as mtpaint will show in the right-click menu.

Gimp in EasyOS is still not compiled with webp support. Personally, that doesn't concern me, as I very much like mtPaint and it does everything I want in an image editor.  

Tags: easy

QV version 241007 released

Here it is:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky-void/amd64/releases/base/

Read about QV in the "quirky" news tag:

https://bkhome.org/news/tag_quirky.html

You are most welcome to play with QV!

Bootup QV on a USB Flash drive, you will find 'qv-installer' which is an easy way to install to internal drive.

Forum feedback here:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=132484#p132484   

Tags: quirky